Real buffs can ID the Wacky Arnolt-Bristol

IT’S not surprising that few people are aware of Arnolt-Bristol cars.

After all, only 142 of the beauties were ever produced in a seven year period from 1954 to 1959.

They were offered in four body styles, a stripped competition model, followed by a slightly better-equipped Bolide version, then another model with side windows, a convertible top and a glovebox.

Then came the coupes, with pop-up headlights.

Only six of the latter were made.

The 1956 prices were $3995 US dollars for the competition model, $4245 for the Bolide, $4995 for the Deluxe and $5995 for the extremely rare coupe.

At that time, a Chevrolet Corvette cost $3149, and everybody knew what it was.

Arnolt-Bristol? Only committed sports car buffs had a clue.

They were the product of Stanley ‘Wacky’ Arnolt, who initially imported rolling MG TD chassis from the UK and fitted them with Italian Bertone bodies.

The shapely Arnolt-MGs proved popular but although Wacky envisaged a production run of 200, only 103 — 67 coupés and 36 convertibles — were produced between 1953 and 1954.

The initial price was $3145.

That romance came to a swift end in 1954, when MG informed Arnolt that it could no longer supply chassis and engines due to demand for its own complete cars, as well as the replacement of the TD by the TF.

So Arnolt began looking for a larger-engined car and one with more pep than the MGs.

Wacky was born Stanley Harold Aranoff in 1906 to wealthy Chicago bookbinders.

He took college engineering courses with the goal of working for a car company and changed his surname to the more easily pronounced ‘Arnolt’.

Unable to find a suitable job in the motor industry during the Depression, he opted to go into business for himself and in 1932 and with three employees, founded the Arnolt Corporation, initially making lubricating devices for the car industry.

He next acquired the rights to an inboard marine engine called the Sea-Mite, which was lighter and more efficient than other engines of comparable power.

On the very foggy morning of September 26, 1938, with one of his engines on a 13-foot boat, Arnolt left St Joseph, Michigan and headed for Chicago – via the massive Lake Michigan.

Despite formidable waves and fog, he made the 95km trip in four hours.

Boatmen along Navy Pier shook their heads in disbelief, stating that he had more nerve than they did.

He was greeted through the still thick morning fog with: “Hallo there, Wacky!”

The daring feat made the news and the headline of an article that day in The Chicago Daily News read: “Wacky Comes Through in Fog; Crosses Lake in 13-Foot Boat”. . . and the nickname stuck.

Those engines ended up making him a fortune during World War II because the US Navy chose them to power their small boats.

He next became a regional distributor for British Motor Corporation products and the US importer for Bristol cars.

He set up shop in Chicago in 1950 to sell MG, Riley, Wolseley, Austin and Morris cars.

That same year he decided to visit the Turin Motor Show, where he was stunned by the beautiful lines of two cars on the Carrozzeria Bertone stand.

The famous design company had built sleek sports bodies on a pair of MGs, one was an open tourer, the other a fixed head coupe.

They had the look of a mini Ferrari, and Wacky was more than impressed.

Dressed like a Texas millionaire in a Stetson, silk suit and boots, Wacky approached Nuccio Bertone and said he wanted to buy both display cars.

Nuccio was delighted because sales of the two cars would keep him in business for at least a few more months.

His famous company, started in Turin in 1912 by his dad, Giovanni, had become Italy’s most respected coachbuilders, but, like many companies worldwide, it was in dire financial straits in the post WWII years and he was reportedly down to his last few lira.

“No, you don’t understand — I don’t want just those two, I want 200 of them,” Arnolt told a surprised and delighted Bertone.

Cherished for 56 years . . . this remarkably well-equipped 1954 Arnolt-Bristol Bolide fetched US $300,000 (AU $421,000).

Arnolt’s financial backing provided critical support for Bertone, effectively rescuing the Italian design and coachwork company from the brink of insolvency.

His company would be saved and continue its famed path in design. (Its latest, shown just weeks ago, is the stunning Autobianchi 112).

So the sleek Arnolt-MGs started arriving and were fast sellers at Arnolt’s Chicago showroom and inspired Wacky to create an even more stylish, faster car.

His enthusiasm – and his money – soon had Wacky on Bertone’s board of directors and he became the company’s vice president.

Still looking for an MG replacement, at the 1953 London Motor Show, Arnolt he focused on the Bristol 404.

The former aircraft company agreed to provide a stripped-down 404 chassis with a Bristol 6 cylinder engine.

They were to be shipped to Bertone and fitted with a sleek Spyder body.

The design was by Franco Scaglione. Coachwork by Bertone.

The Arnolt-Bristol was born.

Shortly after Wacky joined the board of Bertone, a big order came from Alfa Romeo for more than 40,000 bodies for the Alfa Giulietta Sprint.

Next, NSU ordered 20,000 bodies for its Sport Prinz and Simca followed with 25,000 bodies for its 1100 Coupe.

Bertone was on a roll and Wacky’s investment in was paying dividends.

As well, Arnolt put together an Arnolt-Bristol racing team and was one of its drivers.

For the 1955 Sebring 12-hour race the special lightweight cars finished first, second and fourth in the Sports 2000 class, winning the Team Trophy, a feat which was replicated in 1956 and 1960.

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The following year they took second and third in class.

In 1957 the team withdrew after Bob Goldich’s fatal accident on the first lap of his first stint in the car co-driven by Wacky, while a privately entered Arnolt-Bristol finished fifth in class.

1960 brought a final class win, finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd in class.

Because Arnolt-Bristols were built mostly by hand in limited quantities (only 142 over seven years), specifications varied.

Early examples had conventional steel disc wheels but later cars were supplied with centre-lock discs, presumably for faster changes at pit stops.

By that time, though, routine chassis supplies had ceased (Bristol was about to stop building its distinctive BMW-based six anyway) and even Wacky was gone (he died in 1960).

With little impetus to develop a successor model, the marque disappeared, but not before a final Arnolt-Bristol was built from leftover parts and delivered in 1964.

Though 12 cars were lost to a warehouse fire, a quite high proportion — about 85 — of the remaining 130 Arnolt-Bristols survive today, three of them in Australia

The coupes are interesting. Many references say only three coupés were built, but there were in fact six: one was sold in France and the other two in Spain (the chassis numbers of all of which are recorded in the Bristol Owner’s Club registry).

At the Paris Auto Show in 1955, an up-and-coming actor, Lee Marvin, saw the Arnolt-Bristol coupé and bought it.

In later years, Marvin would win the Oscar for Best Actor, and after his death, his ultra-rare Arnolt-Bristol Coupé (the only Arnolt ever built with the sculpted sides that would later appear on the C1 Corvettes) sold at auction for $451,000 Aussie dollars.

Recently, a remarkably well-equipped 1954 Bolide example fetched US$300,000 (AU$421,000).

It had been cherished for the past 56 years by its devoted owner and had been comprehensively restored.

It was finished in a shade called Del Rio Green and was wearing the last set of Borrani knock-off wheels from the factory in 1979, acquired from Wacky’s Arnolt’s son, Mike, in Indiana.

At this same time, he secured a set of hubs from Mike Rahal, father of three-time Indy Car Champion Bobby Rahal.

Originally a $400 add-on, it’s said that only 10 sets of factory Borrani knock-off wheels were ever made, most of which Arnolt had made for his racing team.

Under the finely sculpted hood lay a Bristol 2.0-litre straight-six engine with hemispherical combustion chambers originally designed by BMW’s Fritz Fiedler.

The car was offered with an optional anti-rollbar, Alfin drum brakes, an optional extended “remote” manual transmission shifter, and a competition windshield.

It even came with a tool roll kit, owner’s manuals, spare wheel, and a large grouping of spare, hard to find spare parts.